Preventing Heart Disease by Managing Blood Sugar

Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes have risen to epidemic levels in Canada. One in four of us either has diabetes, undiagnosed diabetes, or prediabetes. Diabetes Canada says this will rise to one in three by 2020 if we don’t take action.

The numbers are concerning because diabetes is a major risk factor for heart disease. Unfortunately doctors find that people with type 2 diabetes often have a number of other risk factors for heart disease as well. These include being overweight, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and being inactive. People with diabetes are at risk of developing heart disease 15 years before those without!

Last week we talked about holistic approaches to reduce your risk of heart disease, and today we’re going to focus on the blood sugar regulation piece of the puzzle.

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Truehope OLE (Olive Leaf Extract) 
OLE is a powerful supplement to augment lifestyle approaches to managing diabetes and prediabetes. Studies show it acts as a hypoglycemic agent by slowing the digestion of starches by slowing their breakdown into simple sugars. It then slows absorption from the digestive tract into the body, while increasing the uptake of blood glucose into cells. 

Chronically elevated blood sugar levels cause significant damage when free radicals outnumber antioxidants. This is oxidative stress. This triggers inflammation and damage from a process called glycation. Antioxidant-rich OLE and it’s active ingredient oleuropein, however, can protect tissues from this damage. 

We recommend taking one 500mg capsule of Truehope OLE twice a day to start.

Truehope Inositol
Truehope Inositol helps the body use insulin, the hormone that signals our cells to take in blood glucose. It can also help with insulin signalling, which reduces insulin resistance (when the cells ignore insulin’s request to take up sugar from the bloodstream). 

When blood glucose can be moved into your cells, your body can make energy from it, lowering your blood sugar levels.

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We recommend starting with 5g (1.5 teaspoons) of Truehope Inositol daily and increasing to a max of 25g/day. 

Other approaches to reducing your risk of heart disease
Truehope OLE and Truehope Inositol are effective partners in managing blood sugar levels. Check on your progress by working with your doctor to monitor your blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c levels. This is the standard test showing long term exposure to elevated blood sugar over the last 120 days.

For more holistic approaches to reduce your risk of heart disease, make sure you check out last week’s article. 

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